Authors:

Beaver, J.D., Van Ditzhuijzen, J., LAWRENCE, A.D., DAVIS, M.H., KEANE, J., & CALDER, A.J

Reference:

Year of publication:

2004

CBU number:

5822

Abstract:

Recent studies of brain areas involved in coding affective value in humans have implicated areas of the orbitofrontal cortex in coding food-based reward value, and areas of ventral insula in coding signals related to disgust. In addition, these areas appear to be sensitive to stimuli from multiple sensory modalities, including olfactory and taste. The present study aimed to extend these findings by examining brain areas involved in coding affective value from visual representations of food. We used fMRI to measure neuronal activity while participants passively viewed pictures of disgusting (e.g., offal), bland (e.g., rice), and pleasant (e.g., chocolate cake) foods. Random-effects analysis (N=13) indicated bilateral areas of anterior orbitofrontal cortex showed increased activity to pleasant foods. Previous research has shown activity in similar areas to be modulated by food-based predictive reward value [Science 2003;301: 1103-1107]. Increased ventral insula activity in response to disgusting foods was also observed.Interestingly, activity in this area of insula was significantly correlated with participants' scores on a self-report measure of sensitivity to experiencing disgust. This observation concurs with recent research showing that neurons in the anterior ventral insula are involved in both recognition and experience of disgust [Ann Neurol 2003; 53:446-453]. The oribitofrontal and insular activity observed in the present study emphasizes the role of these areas in coding food-based affective value from multiple modalities.